Disney World- Epcot

We went to Disney World last Saturday morning. After a mix up in the Orlando airport (worst layout ever), we were on our way to see Mickey! G thought we should start with the "boring" parks so to not disappoint me. We headed to Epcot the first afternoon. It was a very pretty park. That ball is way prettier in person.

It was a kind of gross day out. It had rained then it got warm and muggy. One of the first rides we did was Mission Space. We were told to do the orange team because it is more fun BUT I was worried that my motion sickness would take over. After a lot of worry (my goodness they warn you a lot) we got on the ride. I maintained the vomit and G took this wonderful picture of me after. I look horrid and we forgot our sunglasses at the resort.

G felt kind of yucky that afternoon. Most of the pictures he took that day were grumpy. We found some beer in England. It was good.

There were some cool looking phone booths in England too.

We walked on to France and decided to sit down and drink our beers. While we were sitting there, a French Santa was entertaining the crowds. He looked awesome. I would have gotten my picture with him if G felt better.

I did get my picture with my first Princess of the trip, Sleeping Beauty. My hair looks awful. Keep in mind it rained and we were up at 3:45 to catch the plane.

Here's one of G looking oh so happy. Darn headache!

Everything was so beautiful decorated for Christmas.


We ate dinner in Mexico at a sit down restaurant.

We were both SO tired from our long day of travel we crashed early and got up ready to do our next day at Hollywood Studios!

Christmas Lights 2010

Our first full Christmas season in our house meant Gary putting up his Christmas lights. We started in November just before Thanksgiving. Chris was over to help Gary the first day of putting out the lights.

When he got on the roof, he scared the poop out of me. I was thankful Matt was at the house in case he did fall off the roof.


Anyone who knows my husband knows that he LOVES Autocad and makes diagrams. This one was color coded and he had done the math to calculate the amps to each socket.

The finished product took several weeks of tinkering. We had to wait and wait on the A&M sticker from College Station to complete the star atop the tree. It is painted maroon with the A&M logo. I believe there are about 17,000 lights outside. The tree inside has a crazy amount as well. Just this weekend we had someone steal a candy cane from the front yard but other than that no big problems.

Merry Christmas!

Cancun

We went to Cancun to surprise my Dad for his 55th birthday last week. He had no idea we were coming. They were already there and the three of us showed up while he was napping by the pool. Keep in mind my sister screamed "Happy Birthday" at him.

The weather was wonderful. Not too hot and almost too cold at times.

We parasailed one day and spent the rest of the time just lounging. It was great. We woke up early Sunday morning to watch the sunrise. G took a very Britney picture of me.

The sunrise was beautiful.

Our room was interesting with a window in the headboard of the bed that looked into the shower. It was a very big and nice shower but still weird. There was also a jacuzzi tub in the room.


Big A hurt herself getting on the jet ski and G hurt himself in the pool when he walked off the ledge. I am surprised we left with our appendages intact.

We had some nice dinners with plenty of time to poke fun at the Polish. :) Apparently the Polish were invaded so many times because we were too busy in the bathroom wiping kids' butts and looking at poop. But we did get some nice pictures of us.


We were also just across the street from Bubba Gump and Margaritaville.

And, yes, I know it seems as if we have done nothing but go to Mexico in the past few months but I promise we have. Just nothing note-worthy.

Mississippi

We traveled to Mississippi this past weekend to visit the Richardson Family. Grey has grown and grown since we last saw him. He was a very little baby the last time we saw him.


We took some family portraits for them while we were there. I think they came out cute.

The boys had some fun on the swings together. I think the photos are amazingly funny!


Gary was jumping off the swings and I caught this gem.

While we were there, Grey flipped over from his back onto his tummy on his own for the first time. Here is a picture of him after his big accomplishment.

And to close this post out a picture that looks wrong to almost everyone. Me holding a baby. :)

Summer Crafting

I have spent the better part of the summer crafting. Some of it nerdy. I occasionally have crafting shame thinking that other people will think I am a crazy old nerd. It started out with a Halloween quilt for my mother. We were at the McKinney square and stopped into the quilt shop. It has awesome fabric and projects. They had all of their Halloween fabric out so we bought 24 fat quarters and I went to town. It is being quilted by G's grandmother right now so I don't have a finished picture. This is one up close after I put the border fabric on. I LOVE the skull fabric!


This is the work in progress before I put the borders on. It is quite large and colorful. My iPhone pictures don't do it justice. The purples look way better in person.


After the Halloween quilt, I moved on to candle mats. And I know how weird that sounds. They are wool felt and sit under a candle or whatever you would like. I started with a Turkey Day design.

When my mom saw that I completed it in less than a week she gave me the Halloween one she bought. (She actually bought the Turkey one too.)


Then when I went to the square again to get backing for the Halloween quilt, I bought a fat quarter pack of A&M fabric. My intention was a baby gift... It has not been quilted yet. I just got the backing for it last week. I am hoping they will like it.


When I went to the square AGAIN, this time with my mother-in-law, I got a candle wrap Halloween kit. They sort of match with the candle mat my mom got. It made two wraps and two mats. I took a goofy photo of them on my big candle things.



I also bought the Happy Birthday candle mat while I was there. In the picture you can use it to put a cupcake on as well. I just thought it was super pretty but all of the back stitch made me crazy.


I got a phone call last Saturday that G's Grandmommy wanted the border fabric of my Halloween quilt so back I went to the quilt store. (Twist my arm.) It was actually an ordeal that I don't want to talk of BUT I got some super super super cute fat quarters. This is my next project. They are pinks, greens, teals and browns. All I have done is iron them tonight. Herman and I will start on the next project tomorrow while watching Season 4 of 90210. We watch TV on DVD and craft. G and I were watching the Captain Phil tribute on our DVR last night and I really identify with him. While he was alive he made bird houses and if you know anything about him you would be surprised. He made awesome bird houses with his dog on his down time. He would wake up and "craft" with his dog. This is what I do. He was also slightly embarrassed of his projects, kind of like I am.

I haven't done much crafting this week because I have been in Austin and then when I got back we started some home improvement projects. Last weekend we had G's old painters at Centex paint the kitchen/family room/breakfast nook. Here's a before from Christmas. Notice how dark the mantle was painted and the walls were fairly dark as well.


The after...



We also painted Herman's room this weekend. The walls are ceilings are the same color as the family room. When then hung all of the newly framed Benjamin Knox prints. My goodness, those were expensive to frame! And we painted the guest bathroom. It is what refer to as "highlighter green." The picture was misleading but I am hoping it will be toned down when everything is put back in there. I am now waiting for the patio to be poured. Cross your fingers it happens this week!

Tulum 2010

We recently went on a little vacation to Mexico. We flew into Cancun and then made the hour long trip by van to our resort in Tulum which is even further out in nowhere than Playa del Carmen. Against my better judgment we went on a snorkel adventure while we were there. The picture above was taken at the first place we went to. It used to be an underground cave but it collapsed. They are called cenotes and they were a sacred place for the Mayans. Now, we pulled off the main road and opened a gate and drove down into the jungle. As we are driving, the guide informs us that like 4 out of the 5 species of large cats are found on this land. I thought to myself, "And now you want me to get my happy butt out of this van in the middle of the jungle with large predatory cats? No, no." I was pretty freaked until we started our adventure.



First up was the zip line and platform jump. I was a little nervous about the zip line just because I may or may not be a person that has some difficulty with not holding their nose. Gary on the zip line. And when you dropped in, the water was "refreshingly cold." And by that I mean 65 degrees.



Against all better judgment, here is the picture Gary loves so much and most of the reason that we spent the money buying the photos from them. I fail to see the humor here. I didn't want a lung full of Mexican water. Mr. Montezuma has no need to seek revenge on me. I will retreat in fear.



Here is Gary jumping off the platform. When I jumped I got the LARGEST wedgie. And yes, I climbed up that freaking looking ladder to get up there.






We then got to swim around in the first cenote before we moved on to the next. This one was underground in a cave. If you thought the first one was cold, you were in for a big (or little for the men) surprise. The damn coldest water I've ever been in. The water was about 60 feet deep in areas. There were suppose to be bats in there but I never saw any.





We had a really good lunch. We are still in the middle of the jungle and while waiting in line I notice these chickens running around. I said, "Look at the chickens!" and then put two and two together when I looked at what we were eating for lunch... chicken!

After the little rain storm passed we got back on the van and ventured out toward the ocean to a little lagoon. Earlier in the day the tour guide told us that we would be swimming for about an hour straight in the afternoon. I got worried after hearing that too. I usually opt for the tanning side of aquatic activities. I'm a hell of a tanner. I am proud to say I made it all the way down and back. And coming back we were swimming against the current! It was easier than I imagined. We saw a ton of fish and some sting rays and sea turtles. The stock photo below is proof that it was a super long way out to swim.



We didn't get an underwater camera so I just have some stock photos that our pictures came with. But we did see these in real life!



Here is a shot of the beach from our resort. This is where we ate our lunch one day at the Seaside Cafe. There was a cat walking around in the cafe looking for food. I feed him some chicken off my sandwich. We had several run-ins with the local fauna. We saw quite a few iguanas along the resort grounds. They sat next to us at the pool.



Gary and I eating lunch at the Cafe that same day.





Awesome trip but now we are home and I have several mosquito bites from our snorkeling adventure. I need to look up malaria symptoms now...

Bedroom

We finally painted the bedroom. We did a color match at Home Depot to coordinate with our bedding. I like it, G hates it. I really really need stuff on the walls. I am bad with decorating so I am so unsure as to what. I wish I was an awesome decorator but I am not.

Our dog is OCD. When he eats he must wipe his mouth after. He used to be able to do that on our bed but since we got the new furniture, he cannot so he does this.

He wipes his eyes and mouth on the carpet. We are not very concerned yet because we are in dire need of new flooring. I guess that is a job for this summer when I am off to manage the situation. I don't know what the dude before us did but the carpet is gross. He also loved to hang his dead animals. There are holes in the walls everywhere. After moving in, I went around and pulled all the nails. There were nearly fifty of them.